Why The Mighty Ducks Return Is Disneys Answer To Cobra Kai

Why The Mighty Ducks Return Is Disney+’s Answer To Cobra Kai

The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers sees Disney+ revisit the original 90s movie, and the reboot subversively reinvents The Mighty Ducks Cobra Kai-style.

You Are Reading :[thien_display_title]

Why The Mighty Ducks Return Is Disneys Answer To Cobra Kai

Cobra Kai may be a darker and more mature spin on the 80s classic The Karate Kid, and The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers looks set to be Disney+’s answer to the Netflix hit’s success. Premiering in 2018, Cobra Kai is a subversive dramedy whose premise asks viewers to sympathize with the devil—or at least the devil of 80s teen movies, original Karate Kid antagonist Johnny Lawrence.

Cobra Kai became a critical hit thanks to its thoughtful deconstruction of the 80s movie series it follows, with The Karate Kid’s hero Daniel soon appearing in the series and the show adding layers of complexity to what was originally a simple story of a scrappy underdog defying the odds. Now, rival streaming service Disney+ looks set to cash in the nostalgia for inspirational sports movie franchises of yesteryear by bringing back ’90s icons The Mighty Ducks, and early glimpses of The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers make it clear that the series serves as Disney’s answer to Cobra Kai’s success.

Game Changers will revisit the world of 1992’s sleeper hit The Mighty Ducks. Critically unsuccessful but a hit with audiences, the original movie from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure director Stephen Herek followed the misfortunes of Gordon Bombay, a hotshot attorney whose drunk driving leaves him disgraced and forced to do community service by coaching a kid’s hockey team. Of course, said hockey team is a bullied bunch of plucky misfits who have no hope of winning—unless an initially icy but gradually defrosting Bombay puts his ego aside and coaches them to an unlikely victory, learning a bit about himself in the process. The original Mighty Ducks is a little more kid-oriented than The Karate Kid, with its heroes being slightly younger than the awkward teenager Daniel, and it looks like The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers will offer a Cobra Kai-style reinvention of the original franchise that is also aimed at a less mature demographic.

See also  Skyrim How To Get The Staff Of Sheogorath

When viewers first see the beleaguered antihero Gordon Bombay in The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, not a lot has changed in the intervening decades. As was the case in the original Mighty Ducks, he is again at his lowest ebb, living in an ice rink and swearing off hockey after being burned one too many times. Much like Cobra Kai’s newly-sympathetic image of the previously one-dimensional Johnny Lawrence, seeing Bombay angry and bitter after the triumphant coda of his last screen appearance makes the character a more complex and sadder figure. Although Bombay will eventually be wrangled into returning to his glory days, both Cobra Kai and The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers touch on the same themes of irrelevance and contentment by asking viewers to wonder what happened to their heroes after the credits rolled.

Sure enough, the Mighty Ducks hero soon finds himself returning to his roots and again passing on the magic of his heyday, but there’s still a dark backstory to his rejection of hockey that The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers has hinted at, Cobra-Kai-style. Admittedly, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers isn’t as adult-oriented as Cobra Kai much like the original Mighty Ducks movies were more kid-oriented than The Karate Kid, but it’s clear Disney+ is dialing into the same grown-up nostalgia element as the Netflix hit by bringing back the movie’s hero and making a commendable stab at complicating and subverting the happy endings of the original movies.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/mighty-ducks-revival-disney-plus-cobra-kai-copy/

Movies -